00:00It's do or die for the West Indies when they meet Sri Lanka in the second ODI in
00:04Palakkale on Wednesday from 5 a.m. TT time. Captain Sheahop knows it's not just
00:08about getting back into the series but also trying to qualify for the next 50
00:12over World Cup after missing out on the last one in India in 2023.
00:18We know exactly what's in front of us. We have to play the next game like a final. We see where we are in terms of the
00:22rankings of the world stage and we've got to find ways to get better and improve
00:27quickly. Having said that, we've got to make sure we take each game at a time and seeing what
00:34happened in the previous game, we've got to look at the learnings that we find there, understand how we need to
00:39improve in terms of our bowling and batting. So I think we've got our work cut out.
00:44The conversations that we've had over the last 48 hours or so has been pretty good
00:49and I think that we've been in good headspace to bounce back on Wednesday.
00:53In the rain-affected opening match, the West Indies got to 185-4 in 38.3 overs
00:59before Sri Lanka chased down the revised target of 232 in under 32 overs. Sheahop knows his team
01:05cannot do anything about the weather conditions and wants his colleagues to just focus on dealing
01:10with whatever comes their way. Challenging conditions. We would have hoped that the
01:16rain isn't coming to play a factor but I would say that we've got to find ways to negate that.
01:22We can't focus too much on things we can't control. We definitely can't control the weather.
01:27We've got to find ways to bowl the wet ball if we have to do it again in the next game.
01:31But yeah, I just think our lines and lengths have to be better depending on whichever surface we're
01:36playing on. I think regardless of if it's wet or not, we've got to make sure our lines and lengths
01:41are a lot better as a bowling group and then when we're batting, I think we need to show a bit more
01:44intent. So I think those are the key areas that we need to focus on going into the next game.
01:49The Sri Lankan spinners helped their team come from behind to win the T20 series 2-1.
01:53So what tactics must the Wendys apply in order to be successful?
01:58We know that their main threat would be the spin. Obviously we've got to look at the ballplayers,
02:03need to see if we need to attack the ballplayers and then how are we going to attack their spinners?
02:08Put them under pressure in some way. If we've got to play different shots, if we've got to
02:11look at different scoring areas, push a little bit harder to make them think. If we just allow
02:16them to set and bowl, then they're going to be all over us. So as a team, as a batting group,
02:20we've got to ensure we put a lot more pressure on their bowlers so we can give ourselves the
02:25best chance to get big scores on the board. An interesting fact is that from 65 ODI meetings,
02:31West Indies beat Sri Lanka 31 times with the Sri Lankans restoring parity on Sunday to also reach
02:3731. The other three matches ended in a no result when Udnawani Chiefs export.
